Saturday, October 1, 2016

Trump’s Iraq-War Revisionism

Let’s keep in mind the context for the debate over where Trump stood on the Iraq war: During this campaign he has repeatedly bragged about his farsightedness in opposing it. Here’s Trump in a September 2015 debate:

I’m meeting with people that are terrific people, but I have to say something because it’s about judgment.

I am the only person on this dais — the only person — that fought very, very hard against us [ph], and I wasn’t a sitting politician going into Iraq, because I said going into Iraq — that was in 2003, you can check it out, check out — I’ll give you 25 different stories.

In fact, a delegation was sent to my office to see me because I was so vocal about it. I’m a very militaristic person, but you have to know when to use the military. I’m the only person up here that fought against going into Iraq.

It’s true that the evidence that Trump affirmatively supported the Iraq war in the run-up to it is not especially strong. In September 2002, he answered, “Yeah, I guess so,” when asked whether the U.S. should invade. Today, his defenders–notably RNC spokesman Sean Spicer and Fox News–are claiming that a January 2003 Fox News clip “backs up” Trump’s claims. At that time Trump said, “Perhaps [Bush] shouldn’t be doing it yet. And perhaps we should be waiting for the United Nations.” Sean Hannity, meanwhile, says that Trump expressed his opposition to him privately.